Allergy: Acupuncture Treatment
Acupuncture
Acupuncture shot to fame in the West in 1972, when James Reston, a correspondent for the New York Times, fell ill with appendicitis while covering President Nixon’s historic
trip to China. Following the removal of his appendix, he received acupuncture treatment for pain, and was highly impressed with its effects.
His Chinese doctor invited Reston to witness the use of acupuncture in anaesthesia, and he reported the remarkable fact that patients undergoing surgery could be free from pain
with just a few tiny needles inserted into carefully chosen points on the body. They remained alert and talkative throughout the operation.
Traditional Chinese medicine has enjoyed a good reputation in the West ever since, but what few people realise is that acupuncture anaesthesia is a very new invention. Surgery
was not traditionally practised in China and it was only in the 1950s, after Chairman Mao had urged Chinese doctors to unify Western and Chinese medicine, that the anaesthetic
potential of acupuncture was discovered.
The remarkable effects of acupuncture anaesthesia made a huge impression on doctors in the West – a high-profile success that has had both good and bad results. On the positive
side, conventional medicine has been prepared to take acupuncture seriously, and to undertake some research into its effects. On the negative side, most
of that research has concerned pain control – the effects of acupuncture on the endorphins. These are natural painkilling compounds produced by the body (their effects are
mimicked by opiate drugs such as morphine and heroin).
Western researchers have paid little attention to how acupuncture affects most other aspects of health, including the immune system and allergic diseases. One exception to this
is asthma, where certain nerves do play a large part in producing the symptoms (see box on p. 235).
Treating the person
Diagnosis and treatment are far more orientated towards the individual patient-, in traditional Chinese medicine, and diagnostic labels such as ‘allergy’ or `hayfever’ are less
important than the particular character of a person’s Qi (see box on p. 215), as detected by the acupuncturist. A traditional Chinese acupuncturist pays great attention to the
quality of the different pulses and takes them at the start of every appointment, and at intervals during treatment, to check how the Qi flow has changed. Each treatment session
is unique and tailored to the individual’s condition at that particular moment.
This makes it very difficult to carry out conventional scientific research into traditional acupuncture.
In an effort to make acupuncture accessible to research, a more Westernised and formulaic approach has been developed, using orthodox medical diagnosis and needling a set of
acupuncture points that are prescribed for that medical condition. Experts in traditional acupuncture feel that this approach – first name the disease, then apply a standard
remedy – will often fail, and is missing the whole point of acupuncture.
That is not the only problem with Westernised acupuncture, as Dr David Eisenberg of Harvard University, a leading expert on acupuncture, points out. He describes a typical
acupuncture session in China: ‘Each time the acupuncturist inserts a needle, he or she asks the patient, “Do you have it or not?” referring to the patient’s “obtaining the Qi”
(de Qi). The question asks whether the patient has felt a sensation of fullness, distension, pins and needles, or the like, from the insertion of the needle in the spot being
used… Most Chinese have experienced acupuncture and they understand the phenomenon of de Qi… By contrast, most Western patients seeking acupuncture therapy know nothing of
the phenomenon of de Qi. Not knowing what sensations they should anticipate, they cannot tell the acupuncturist whether a needle is in the right place. When both therapist and
patient know little about de Qi, as frequently occurs in Western acupuncture clinics, the result is bound to be disappointing.’ Fortunately it is possible to find acupuncturists
who have been properly trained, and the sensation of ‘obtaining the Qi’ is perfectly detectable, even to a sceptical Westerner, so look for someone who pays attention to this.
There can be emotional and psychological reactions to acupuncture, so make sure that you also feel relaxed with your acupuncturist and that there is a certain empathy between
you.
Does acupuncture work for allergies?
According to Chinese theories, acupuncture can have some benefits in any illness – if you are ill, your flow of Qi must be disturbed, and it will help to put that right. Indeed,
most people do feel a sense of well-being after an acupuncture session.
To look at this from a Western scientific perspective, acupuncture can stimulate your body to increase its production of endorphins (see p. 214). This gives you a mild high,
similar to that you’d get from running for a couple of hours. Feeling relaxed and confident helps most people to cope better, and gives them a new perspective on life’s
problems. Since the mind plays some part in almost all illness (if only to aggravate the effects of an underlying physical problem), inducing a more positive state of mind can
be of benefit.
As regards more specific effects, several studies show that acupuncture can have a small, short-term effect in opening up the airways of asthmatics. This is not surprising
because acupuncture affects the autonomic nervous system, the ‘auto-pilot’ section of the nervous system (see box on p. 235) which can tighten or relax the muscles around the
airways. A short-term effect is just that – it doesn’t treat the real problem. What matters more in asthma is the long-term impact of any treatment on the underlying
inflammation of the airways (see p. 36). Although some studies of acupuncture treatment have found a reduction in inflammation, other studies have not. However, only one study
to date used an individualised approach to acupuncture, as opposed to a same-for-everyone formula. It is interesting that this study did find good long-term effects on airway
inflammation.
The larger picture
Acupuncture is just one element of Chinese medicine, which has several other techniques available. In China (and in some Chinese clinics in the West) these techniques are used
together, as different ways of tackling the same problem. No traditional Chinese doctor would dream of trying to treat every patient with acupuncture alone and, in the case of a
patient with allergies, herbal remedies would usually be a central part of the treatment.
A recent and very careful scientific study from Germany took this combined approach with hayfever, and showed some benefit. The patients were treated with both acupuncture and
herbal treatment, using a standardised regime but with additional acupuncture points and herbs chosen to suit the individual. Those treated reported a substantial improvement in
how they felt generally –but not in the specific symptoms of hayfever.
The flow of energy
Acupuncture is rooted in ancient Chinese ideas of the human body. which are radically different from those of Western medicine:
• Vital energy. called Oi or Chi (and always pronounced ‘thee’). is what distinguishes living bodies from dead ones. It should flow easily and harmoniously thrOLIC11011i
the body nourishing and protecting the organs. When the flow of Qi is blocked, or becomes unbalanced. then illness develops. - Channels called meridians are the conduits for Qi
in the body. They mostly run vertically (i.e. from head to toe) and the points where acupuncture needles are inserted all lie on these meridians.
• The flow of Qi can be measured by carefully taking pulses — not just one pulse as in Western medicine, but several different kinds of pulse.
• By detecting disturbances in the flow of Qi, and correcting them, existing illness can be cured, and incipient illness prevented, before there are any obvious symptoms.
The nature of the meridians and the acupuncture points remains a mystery to Western doctors. Some parts of the meridians run roughly along the lines of certain nerves or blood
vessels, but they do not follow them exactly. The acupuncture points have no anatomical reality — there is nothing to see either on the surface or under the skin. However, many
are located near major nerve endings or over deep pressure receptors.